Tuesday, 29 November 2011

First of all today I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has entered my woodland winter giveaway in my last post, and all your kind and delightful comments....the giveaway will be open until december 8, so there is still time to enter if you've missed it.....and one of the nice things about it is i've discovered lots more blogs to visit, read and enjoy!......

Today's pctures are from the rather festive looking potting shed, where i've been spending a little time making some xmas decorations with a woodlandy, greenery kind of feel.....

.....this week is the lovely Mr P's birthday week and we have already been celebrating rather a lot....and at the weekend we'll be having a family party, so i wanted to put up the decorations a bit earlier than usual this year...............

......as well as making decorations i've been cooking....and my mother is also baking....and both my daughters are cooking and baking too.... so we will have lots of delicous food and of course plenty of cake...

......there are still flowers in the garden but now i'm going more for the foliage and some berries both real and not so real......the picture below shows the geraniums bright blooms which greeted me when i opened the potting shed door......such a vivid fanfare of colour that i really wasn't expecting!

........next week i'll be planting up some pots of bulbs as presents, when i've finished the decorations..

......here is one of the toadstool tealights, the same as the one in the giveaway....it's fun finding suitable containers for them and this one seemed ideal.....the glass lantern hangs up and looks very pretty.....

........a sweet little holly topped cake or two to help the work along.....

......and now i'm going to make some more top secret things, and hopefully put the finishing stitches into my new quilt....and clean my house, decorate the trees ready for the birthday/christmassy party....cook a little more....bake a little more.....and enjoy the week a lot.. I hope you are having a wonderful week too with lots of making time and happy cosy days and evenings.....back soon xxxxxx

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Welcome to the wonderful woodland winter giveaway! There are four things in today's festive giveaway......a little deer ornament made specially for you by me, a fabulous Enchanted Forest Tea Towel (thanks to the very generous Al of All Tea Towels), a cute little toadstool tealight and a little chocolatey surprise too........

....a while ago i planned to make a little felt ornament for my winter giveaway and decided on a little deer...

....and then when i featured this gorgeous festive tea towel in an earlier post so many of you liked it so i decided to add this to my giveaway too.......the design is by the talented artist Linda Edwards and you can see more of her delightful, colourful work on her website here.....
To enter the giveaway all you have to do is to leave me a comment on this post (and if you become a follower or are one already, just mention that in your comment and you can have two entries!)......the giveaway is open to everyone worldwide and will run until December 8 .........

...you could hang the little deer on a door or on the christmas tree.......

....the buttons i used are some vintage pearly ones i bought at the famous Duttons for Buttons shop in York this time last year....the shop had them packed in little bags looking like sweets........i embroidered some tiny stars here and there too.....

....and of course there will be a chocolate novelty in the package..... this little robin and yule log......

Good luck in the giveaway!

Have a happy week and thanks for visiting me and all your sweet comments xxxxx

Saturday, 19 November 2011

All the flowers in this little jug were picked from the garden today.... unusual November flowers for our garden which is normally rather flowerless by now, but today i found some cornflowers... some cosmos....some lavender.......white geranium....cranesbill.....fuschia.........

some nasturtiums... scabious.... daisies....and some purple flowers that i can't remember the name of....
i went out to put some vegetable peelings in the beehive composter this morning and saw a hyacinth flowering in one of the borders, which made me then go and investigate the rest of the garden to see what the flowers were up to, and that's how i found all these....most unusual but a pretty surprise.....

This week has been a bit of a fabric fest here as i've been working on some big fabric-y projects......

....more about these lovely Liberty fabrics in a future post....how delicious they are......

and so is this lovely tilda fabric which i've used to back my christmas quilt, and then made a quick pincushion with some of the left over fabric....i can never have too many pincushions and love lots of them around the house....

... as you can see this little bundle of squares has the cute name of flurry and though we haven't had any snow flurries here yet, it's been a flurry of fabric and projects in my studio this week.....these squares might become a cushion but i haven't quite decided yet.......

....and yes, there has been a bit of christmas crafting going on too....a few teeny things hidden away as surprises for family and friends....and i am making some little labels to add to my christmas quilt using rubber stamped words...i've been washing them to test for colourfastness and they seem fine, and i thought i might add some of these red and green dotty buttons too....
Thank you very much for dropping by to see me and for your very kind comments....i hope you are all having a wonderful weekend......i'll be back soon with a giveaway!! xxxxx

Monday, 14 November 2011

Today i thought you might like a little look at my studio, now in a slightly less tidy state than when i showed you last time after the big sort out, but not too bad (yet).....i brought the lovely little rose hips in from the garden yesterday after Mr P pruned one of the rambling roses and i was finally able to reach them......and here are some more berries in the form of one of Vanessa's sweet holly brooches, such a treat.....

....i love Vanessa's blog and work and these little brooches are like tiny sculptures, made from a mix of paper mache, crochet, fabric and embroidery and so cleverly constructed that you can move each berry and leaf as they are wired individually...i tried the brooch on my conrflower cardi...lovely....and the colours reminded me rather of the mille colori yarn i bought this time last year at the knitting and stitching show.....i used the yarn for this corkscrew scarf......

......the pattern and yarn can be found here.....the holly brooch looks lovely decorating my studio this week, but i know it will also be perfect on my winter coats......

....and here is a card featuring one of Vanessa's delightful sculptures...Sir Henry Brambles is on my mantlepiece this week... you can find Vanessa's sculptures, cards, paintings and prints here.....

......and now it's nearly time for me to go back to my crafty work, helped of course by a nice cup of tea...this week i am making some top secret projects....i am also making something for a giveaway which i'll tell you about very soon.......

.....i bought some new felt supplies at a big craft store at the weekend, you can always tell it's November in my studio when i start cutting things out of festive felt......

........and here is a sneak peek of what i'm stitching in the evenings, cosy by the fire, making a new quilt to brighten up the xmas sofa....i'm so enjoying quilting this simple design, and loving all the fabrics in it, some of which i've had a long time......thanks for popping in to my bit of blogland and for all your lovely comments.....hope you have a wonderful, cosy, crafty week.....back soon. xxx

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

As the days are drawing in and becoming darker, I find I'm spending more time in my cosy kitchen, making warming wintry meals like soups and casseroles, and baking things to put in the freezer, just because it's so cosy in there...........this week I had a nice surprise when the lovely Al McCavery contacted me and asked if I'd like to choose two tea towels to review from his website All Tea Towels....(yes, please)......

.....the website is a cornucopia of designer tea towels made from the finest quality linen, cotton or linen union and I was really spoilt for choice....I eventually decided to choose the Enchanted Forest Tea Towel because its red and white design chimes in perfectly with my Christmas themes and I love all the woodland creatures and sweet folk art style decoration......

....and the Union Jack Tea Towel because I also love the Brit chic look (and am currently working on a magazine commission for next year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations) so this design is perfect to be drying my dishes with right now........

The All Tea Towels site is a lovely one to browse for gift ideas (shipping is fast and worldwide), and there is a charming page on the History of Tea Towels (and Dish Towels too)!

One more thing to show you for my cosy kitchen this week.......at last I have made a granny cushion for my cane chair (where I sit and stitch, knit or crochet sometimes while waiting for a cake to bake or dinner to cook)......yes, the Bright and Flowery granny cushion has had it's final flower sewn on, and a border crocheted round it ............

..........and now it is in place my cosy kitchen ..........

I hope you like it..... it was inspired by many of you and the wonderful crochet you create!

Thank you for dropping in to see me today, and for those who leave such sweet comments a big thank you ....I read each and every one and enjoy them all. Wishing you all a happy cosy week. Back soon xxxx

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Here is Trudie....a new bunny coming to join us as winter is creeping in....her outfit has rather an alpine influence............

.....i was longing to applique some toadstools on her little dress when i made her a while ago and i love using felt with a little embroidery on it, especially for wintry projects.....

.........the fabrics i had chosen were what really inspired this look..........

...........and a nice big button order arrived this week to be used for lots of commissions, so i picked out the red, white and aqua ones for a quick picture......buttons are so inspiring too don't you think???

....the little alpine sampler is my project in this year's Crafts Beautiful Christmas Special....i enjoyed designing this sampler and it will be nice having it in our house for the coming festive season.........

.............Trudie and the mushrooms......still making them, with plans for xmas decorating too.....

......i found these cute toadstool cupcake cases the other day, just what i needed......i will be making some hummingbird bakery cupcakes in them for a family birthday at the end of the month.........

.........and yummy new fabrics with that fresh look i so enjoy.....i can hardly bring myself to chop them up though when they are arranged in such neat little bundles........

........Trudie sitting on a special little bunny chair, brought back by a friend from Spain especially for the bunnies, how very kind and thoughtful, and how useful this little chair is already......

Before i go i must just say that Jenny Arnott is having a wonderful giveaway over at her blog here, so do pop over and visit her and put your name in the draw to win some gorgeous treats.......

....it's almost the weekend again, and we will be helping at Charlie's birthday party to be held at a nearby farm so we are all looking forward to that very much.....i hope you have a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the beginning of November...thanks for dropping in to see me and your sweet comments....back soon xxxxx

my new book

about me

I am a designer, author, illustrator, stitcher and I just love crafting and making things. I live on the North West coast of England with my lovely husband. My family mean the world to me - I have two amazing grown up daughters and three sweet grandchildren - two boys and a girl.